Gordon Hensley Political/Business/Policy Bio

Gordon Hensley is an independent Washington, DC-based communications strategist, writer and content specialist with a diverse 35-year background spanning national GOP politics, Capitol Hill, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), corporate advocacy and health policy. 

Originally from Brooklyn NY, Hensley is a former communications director and speechwriter for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), a GOP Governor, 5 Capitol Hill lawmakers, and a variety of U.S. Senate and gubernatorial campaigns across the country. In addition to paid staff or consulting experience on 6 presidential campaigns, he’s worked on the ground for multiple months in over a dozen states, including New York, Texas, California, New Hampshire, Oregon, Louisiana, Tennessee, Minnesota and New Jersey.

Hensley’s experiential understanding of unique state capitol, media, and political cultures inform his strategic approach to national communications and advocacy efforts. This level of state involvement combined with his D.C. experience is foundational to his competitive advantage and consulting value proposition. He has long harbored deep skepticism toward DC-centric consultants and “experts” who lack professional experience or a practical understanding of reality beyond the Beltway, New York City and the broader Acela corridor.

To detail his experiences and thoughts on politics over the years, Hensley has appeared twice at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and was a guest lecturer or panelist at UT-Austin, LSU-Baton Rouge, Rutgers Eagleton Institute (NJ), Saint Anselm College (NH), Pace University (NY), the National Press Club, and a variety of DC and Capitol Hill media forums.

1980s

As a student at George Washington University in 1980, Hensley defied his parents and dropped out to intern at the Republican National Committee (RNC) research department, wait tables for cashflow, and find a way to get involved with Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign. At his own initiative, he secured a $40/week “town chairman coordinator” job at the Manchester, NH Reagan headquarters, living in his girlfriend’s dorm at nearby Colby-Sawyer College to make ends meet. The job — more mundane than the title suggested — was driving signs and bumper stickers to supporters across the state. The experience nevertheless set his professional future.

After returning to GWU, Hensley later secured a job in 1984 as issues director in a longer-shot Westchester County, NY open seat House race. His candidate — New Rochelle CPA Joseph J. DioGuardi — was fortuitously swept into office in the Reagan re-elect landslide. Hensley served as DioGuardi’s Capitol Hill press secretary and remained with the lawmaker through his successful ’86 re-elect challenge from former Democratic Rep. Bella Abzug. In ’87, Hensley left the Hill to return to New Hampshire — serving as New England press secretary (NH, ME, MA) for dark horse ’88 GOP presidential candidate Pete du Pont, a former Governor of Delaware. Following DuPont’s 4th place NH finish, Hensley served in ’88 as speechwriter for NJ GOP Senate candidate Pete Dawkins, and, in ’89, returned to D.C. as communications director for NJ GOP Rep. Jim Courter. 

1990s

Ironically, Hensley most significant professional breakthrough came as press secretary for Texas oil magnate Clayton Williams, the 1990 TX GOP gubernatorial candidate defeated by Ann Richards in a nationally-watched, negative slugfest. Hensley’s newfound, unexpected notoriety came about from managing on-the-record and on-camera damage control of Williams’ numerous “off-hand remarks,” leading to a surge in campaign opportunities. After briefly returning to DC and an RNC consulting engagement, he moved to Louisiana in ’91 to work as communications director for the newly-minted party-switching GOP Governor, Buddy Roemer.  

Hensley then worked for Pres. George H.W. Bush as national director of state media operations, and then as a communications consultant for NY GOP gubernatorial candidate George Pataki in his ’94 campaign against incumbent Mario Cuomo. From ’95-’97 he served as NRSC communications director, Chaired by Sen. Al D’Amato (R-NY). In ’96, Hensley spent upwards of 4 months in Oregon working to elect Sen. Gordon Smith while also serving as a consultant to KS Senator Bob Dole’s ’96 presidential campaign, concurrent with his NRSC duties. 

In 1997, Hensley founded GOP communications and speechwriting firm Strategic Media Inc (SMI). Clients of the Georgetown-based start-up included U.S. Sens. Al D’Amato (R-NY) and Paul Coverdell (R-GA), Gov. George Pataki (R-NY), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the NY and CA GOP state parties, TX Gov. George W. Bush’s ’99-00 presidential primary campaign (through 3/00), and the Republican Leadership Council (RLC).

2000s

By 2000, Hensley had worked both on and off-year campaigns for 12 of the past 14 years. Burned out from partisan politics and what he considered the growing negativity of campaign work, he began shifting to non-partisan healthcare advocacy work. Public affairs firms began retaining SMI for work on federal and state healthcare projects (Mercury Public Affairs, Edelman) and Hensley’s focus reoriented to Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement for long term and post-acute care providers. Two of SMI’s largest initial healthcare clients were the DC-based American Health Care Assn (AHCA) and Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care (AQNHC). State clients included the PA Health Care Assn (PHCA), TX Health Care Assn (THCA), and LA Nursing Home Assn (LNHA).  

In 2004, Hensley downsized the 4 person SMI office configuration he’d used for political campaign work to that of  “solopreneur” corporate status. Instead of in-office employees, Hensley retained off-site research, media production and other vendors — a model that remains in place to this day. During his transition from politics to healthcare advocacy, Hensley was unexpectedly asked to help reorganize and lead 2006 TN GOP Senate candidate Bob Corker’s communications effort against Rep. Harold Ford after falling behind and subsequent campaign shake-up. Having consulted for Corker during the Chattanooga businessman’s first unsuccessful ’94 GOP Senate primary run — and had remained in touch — Hensley spent fall ’06 as senior communications advisor in Nashville while continuing to remotely build and service his health practice.  

Following Corker’s win in the desultory 2006 GOP election cycle, Hensley re-branded SMI to sm/c/p (strategic media/content & platforms). The re-brand reflected what he saw in the field during the Corker race: the need to better align communications and messaging across multiple social media channels and platforms to cut through an increasingly cluttered information marketplace. In the healthcare realm, Hensley also noticed that objective, data-driven studies funded by healthcare companies themselves — not just neutral media and academic third parties — were increasingly useful tools to advance clients’ Capitol Hill and regulatory policy narratives. He began collaborating with several health data firms to help design, write, and publicize this ancillary advocacy content to help further providers’ D.C. policy initiatives.

In 2008-’09 Hensley made a brief foray back into politics, spending 3 months in MN with GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and his legal team during a protracted and ultimately unsuccessful recount effort against  apparent Democratic Sen-elect, Al Franken. Separately, the City of New York tapped Hensley’s firm to serve as lead copywriter on a multi-year project to boost international tourism to NYC — a new area of business focus. Hensley, a longtime live music fan, joined the nonpartisan group Headcount as a board member in 2012. The NYC-based non-profit has registered nearly 1.7 million new voters at music festivals nationwide since its 2004 inception. Other board members include the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, live music entrepreneur Peter Shapiro, JamBase.com founder Andy Gadiel, and a variety of other music industry professionals dedicated to non-partisan voter participation.   

In 2015 sm/c/p collaborated with with DC-based government relations and communications firms (BGR Group, Schmidt Public Affairs, King & Spalding) to help found, launch and establish the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition (SCPC) as a leading long term care pharmacy (LTCP) voice in the crowded DC pharmaceutical space. Federal and state pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) regulation, FDA drug repackaging, “21st Century Cures” legislation and opioid abuse became a new legislative and regulatory focus. In addition to primary collaboration on policy content and website development, Hensley served as lead writer for media and opinion commentary directed at the Senate Finance, HELP and Judiciary committees, and the House Ways & Means, and Energy & Commerce Committees.

Hensley also served as a primary collaborator on WI GOP Governor Scott Walker’s 2015 presidential campaign announcement speech and subsequently retained to work on Walker’s health reform, labor reform and foreign policy rollout speeches in Minneapolis MN, Las Vegas NV, and Charleston SC, respectively. In 2017, sm/c/p formed a strategic alliance with TN-based Bridge Public Affairs, founded by former senior aides to Sen. Bob Corker.

2020s

As the Covid pandemic unfolded in 2020, Hensley accepted a unique 8 month opportunity to join the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a senior communications advisor. In addition to advisory purview at the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Hensley also served as senior media counsel to Covid “testing czar” and Asst. Health Sec. Adm. Brett P. Giroir.

Hensley resumed sm/c/p business in 2021, serving as a communications strategist, writer and content creator for several D.C., NYC and Austin-based public affairs, lobbying and research/data firms. His primary focus from 2022 through 2025 has been pharmaceutical issues, life sciences/biotech, private equity in healthcare, federal cannabis banking reform, and FDA/Capitol Hill study of psychedelics to treat PTSD.